The meat cutting industry has generally undergone very little change over the last several decades. Meat is typically sent from slaughterhouses in fairly large pieces to meat markets, grocery stores, and other retailers where it is cut into roasts, steaks, and the various other types of cuts of meat for resale to the public. A band saw is most often used to cut the meat into its final resale size.
A specialized blade called a bone saw is used for cuts of meat that include portions of bone, such as ribs, rib-eye, and t-bone steaks. A knife blade is commonly used for cuts of meat that do not include bones such as fillet mignon steaks. As the blades pass through the meat at relatively high speeds, they pick up residual physiological material including blood, fat, bone dust, and bone marrow. The residual material sticks to the blade as it travels around the band saw. A portion of the residual material is then transferred to the surface of the meat.
The residual material can cause unsightly discoloration of the meat surface. The residual material can undergo denaturing caused by friction from the heat of the saw blade. The residual material, both raw and denatured, can be a haven for bacterial growth. Many meat cutters scrape at least one surface of the meat with a scraper after it has been cut in an attempt to remove as much residual physiological material as possible. However, a thin layer of the residual physiological material typically remains on the meat, thereby degrading the cut meat's appearance and reducing its overall shelf life.
Various methods have been used to reduce the amount of residual physiological material on the band saw blade. For example, specialized scrapers have been developed to scrape the saw blade as it travels around the band saw. However, scraping the saw blade can increase friction, thereby heating the blade and increasing the amount of denatured material that is retained on the blade and subsequently transferred to the surfaces of cut meat. Scraping can also increase wear and tear on both the saw blade and other components of the band saw.
Additionally, scraping can only remove a portion of the residual material. Some of the physiological material is sufficiently adhered to the blade that it resists removal through scraping. A fairly large percentage of the overall residual material can be adhered to surfaces in the teeth of the blade that are substantially orthogonal to the scraper, thereby limiting any removal of the material through scraping. Moreover, bone saw blades have teeth that are alternately directed at opposite angles to allow the blade to more easily pass through bones. These alternately directed teeth would quickly wear or shred a scraper applied to the blade. Therefore, scraping of bone saw blades is limited to the area behind the teeth, leaving a large amount of residual physiological material on the surfaces of the teeth that can then be transferred to the surface of the cut meat products.